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Following a petition by a number of environmental lobby groups, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has decided to ban the use of three perfluorinated compounds (PFC’s) in food packaging. Whilst the compounds in question had not been manufactured in the US since 2011, many consumer action groups were concerned about the possible import of such long-chain PFC’s and their potential harm to the public.

The EPA stated that its decision was because the ‘new data available as to the toxicity of substances structurally similar to these compounds demonstrated [that] there is no longer a reasonable certainty of no harm from the food-contact use of these food contact substances.’

The ‘three specific perfluoroalkyl ethyl containing food-contact substances’ were typically used as water repellents on paper and cardboard for packaging foods such as pizzas and microwave popcorn.

The ban has been introduced in support of the EPA’s plan to reduce the use of PFCs in all products. So far, the reduction is going to plan, with the Royal Society of Chemistry reporting in February 2015 that “the major chemical companies it (the EPA) has partnered with are on track to phase out production of long-chain perfluorinated chemicals (PFC) in America by the end of 2015. These eight firms alone are responsible for the vast majority of all the PFCs produced globally and, to date, they have developed over 150 alternatives.”

Food packaging manufacturers are now wondering which products are next to be banned as part of this trend. More optimistic observers are thinking about which of the new alternatives will become the best replacement.

During the first few days of 2016, the Iranian Petrochemical Commercial Company (IPCC) had one of its European bank accounts reactivated, the first time this had happened in five years.

According to Mehdi Sharifi Niknafs, the Executive Director of IPCC, this was one the final stages for the opening up of trade, including in petrochemicals, between Iran and much of the rest of the world.

The Spanish bank account was opened following the signing of a deal between IPCC and the association of Spanish manufacturers, and allows for the transferral of funds for import and export sales. Furthermore, money held in the bank account for the past five years has also been released, and has been received by IPCC.

As Niknafs told the Mehr News agency, “On the basis of the reached agreements and receiving of official approvals [by] the government and central bank of Spain, the limitations of receiving of money as well as export of products from various world countries were practically removed.” He continued by explaining that, this was “… due to the withdrawal of restrictions on the sale of petrochemical products from the list of international sanctions during the preliminary agreement between Iran and [the group of] 5+1 in Geneva. [As a result] IPCC will proceed along the planned route for the sale of petrochemical products.”

The ending of restrictions on movement of money has been seen by many as proof that trading with Iran can truly begin. Due to export restrictions, Iranian petrochemical production has been running at under capacity for years, and now many businesses are keen to restart trading. This is because not only does Iran have massive oil reserves at low production rates, but also requires infrastructure and petrochemical production development after so many years in the wilderness. Whilst domestic markets are also set to open up to foreign imports, allowing for further business opportunities for a range of retail and industrial products for Iran’s 80 million population.

In Europe, whose chemical industry has been stagnating for over a decade, firms are rushing to engage in deals for all manner of products, as the raising of the trade embargo is seen as a chance to gain a strategic advantage over the US, which is still largely limited in its freedom to do business with Tehran.

As David Smith of the British newspaper, the Guardian, reports, “American companies risk missing out on a ‘gold rush’ in Iran when sanctions are lifted as expected this year under the controversial nuclear deal. Although US companies’ foreign subsidiaries will be allowed to engage with Iran, a minefield of regulatory, transparency and legal issues could present more risk than reward in the eyes of many. Investors are also likely to be wary of the next US presidential election, with Republican candidates vowing to scrap the deal if they come to office. Other countries, however, appear to have embraced the deal and Iran’s potential as a sleeping giant.“

Whilst this certainly does look like a golden opportunity for European firms to do business in a fresh market, many are still not convinced that it will be enough to return the European chemicals industry to the ‘good old days‘.

Others are more optimistic and are wondering if Iran could save the European Chemicals Industry.

A major breakthrough has been made at the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) based in Colorado, USA that could remove the chemical industry’s need for petroleum in many processes.

As reported in the journal ‘Nature Plants’ the discovery could lead to many chemicals that today are derived from petroleum being manufactured from biomass. It may also provide a way for producing all of our energy needs from plant matter. The report explains that, “NREL scientists engineered a cyanobacterium, Synechocystis, that is unable to store carbon as glycogen into a strain that could metabolize xylose (a main sugar component of cellulosic biomass), thus turning xylose and carbon dioxide into pyruvate and 2-oxoglutarate, organic chemicals that can be used to produce a variety of bio-based chemicals and biofuels. While testing this mutant strain under multiple growth conditions, the scientists discovered, unexpectedly, that it excreted large amounts of acetic acid.

Acetic acid is a chemical produced in high volumes for a wide variety of purposes. The chemical industry produces more than 12 million tons per year of acetic acid, primarily from methanol, which in turn is mainly produced from natural gas. The potential to produce acetic acid from photosynthesis could reduce the nation’s reliance on natural gas.“

The discovery itself involved a little luck and a lot of detective work to calculate the previously unknown role that an enzyme called phosphoketolase (as illustrated in the picture above) plays in breaking down natural sugars found in organic matter.

As NREL senior scientist Jianping Yu explained, “It turns out that the phosphoketolase pathway is a major pathway because it avoids the carbon loss associated with traditional pathways. [As a result] a wide variety of bioproducts and biofuels can be made more efficiently using this pathway. As it is more efficient than the traditional pathways, it can be exploited to increase photosynthetic productivity“

Whilst this may result in better biofuel use and reduce mankind’s dependency on fossil fuels for energy, it could also lead to further discoveries on how plant matter can act as a feedstock for what are currently petrochemicals. As the laboratory claims, the discovery “opens the door to better ways of producing chemicals from carbon dioxide or plant biomass, rather than deriving them from petroleum.“

Whilst this is the first step in a long journey, some scientists are beginning to ask, “Is this the end of the petrochemicals industry?”